scholarly journals The importance of task variability in the design of learner corpora for SLA research

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole Tracy-Ventura ◽  
Florence Myles
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
Sectional Study ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Tense And Aspect ◽  
Learner Corpus ◽  
Historical Figures ◽  
Task Types ◽  
Task Variability

This cross-sectional study investigates task variability focusing on the use of Spanish past tense morphology in a spoken learner corpus. Sixty L2 learners of Spanish (English L1) from three different proficiency levels (20 per group) and fifteen native speakers completed three communicative tasks (a guided interview, a picture-based narrative, and a historical figures description) and an experimental task, all designed to investigate the acquisition of tense and aspect in L2 Spanish. Data were transcribed in CHAT, and analysed and coded using a specially created interactive coding program that works in combination with the CLAN program (MacWhinney 2000). Results demonstrate significant differences in the emergence and accurate use of past tense morphology across tasks. An additional analysis showed that the less controlled tasks encouraged few instances of more advanced features, suggesting that not all task types are equally successful at eliciting the range of tense-aspect morphological contrasts theoretically relevant for SLA research on tense and aspect.

scholarly journals Lexical Aspect and the Use of Simple Past Tense by Thai Learners of English

MANUSYA ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-77
Author(s):  
Suriya Sriphrom ◽  
Theeraporn Ratitamkul
Keyword(s):  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
Sectional Study ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Aspect Hypothesis ◽  
Low Level ◽  
Lexical Aspect ◽  
The Past ◽  
Past Tense Form ◽  
Cloze Test

This cross-sectional study investigated the use of the simple past tense form by twenty Thai learners of English at two levels of proficiency. A cloze test developed by Ayoun and Salaberry (2008) was adopted. The findings showed that the learners in the high proficiency group used the past tense form more accurately than the learners in the low proficiency group. When verbs were categorized according to lexical aspect, both groups of learners were found to use the simple past tense form most often with telic events as well as with states. This did not correspond to the prediction of the Aspect Hypothesis, which asserts that low-level learners tend to use the simple past tense form with telic events first. The distributional bias in the input could account for the pattern found in this study.

The relationship of form and meaning: A cross-sectional study of tense and aspect in the interlanguage of learners of English as a second language

1992 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 253-278 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen Bardovi-Harlig
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Sectional Study ◽  
Appropriate Use ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Tense And Aspect ◽  
Lexical Aspect ◽  
Associate Form ◽  
Relationship Of

ABSTRACTThe task of all language learners is to match form and meaning. This study investigates the associations of form and meaning in the developing tense and aspect systems of adult learners of English as a second language. A cross-sectional study of 135 learners at six levels of proficiency was conducted using a cloze passage and compositions on the same topic. The interlanguage tense and aspect systems can be characterized as showing high formal accuracy, but relatively lower appropriate use across all levels. During the period when appropriate use lags behind formal accuracy, learners seem to associate form and meaning through alternative interim hypotheses related to lexical aspect and discourse function.

scholarly journals The acquisition of past tense morphology in Icelandic and Norwegian children: an experimental study

1999 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 577-618 ◽  
Author(s):  
HRAFNHILDUR RAGNARSDÓTTIR ◽  
HANNE GRAM SIMONSEN ◽  
KIM PLUNKETT
Keyword(s):  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
The Other ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
Inflectional Morphology ◽  
Sectional Study ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Token Frequency ◽  
The Past ◽  
Type Frequency ◽  
Coherence Factors

Icelandic and Norwegian past tense morphology contain strong patterns of inflection and two weak patterns of inflection. We report the results of an elicitation task that tests Icelandic and Norwegian children's knowledge of the past tense forms of a representative sample of verbs. This cross-sectional study of four-, six- and eight-year-old Icelandic (n=92) and Norwegian (n=96) children systematically manipulates verb characteristics such as type frequency, token frequency and phonological coherence – factors that are generally considered to have an important impact on the acquisition of inflectional morphology in other languages. Our findings confirm that these factors play an important role in the acquisition of Icelandic and Norwegian. In addition, the results indicate that the predominant source of errors in children shifts during the later stages of development from one weak verb class to the other. We conclude that these findings are consistent with the view that exemplar-based learning, whereby patterns of categorization and generalization are driven by similarity to known forms, appropriately characterizes the acquisition of inflectional systems by Icelandic and Norwegian children.

scholarly journals Phonological variation in German Learner English

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Lukas Sönning
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Theoretical Work ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Phonological Variation ◽  
Sectional Study ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Diverse Range ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
L2 Phonology ◽  
Shed Light

This study is concerned with linguistic constraints underlying the acquisition of a second language (L2) phonology. It pursues two aims: The first is to offer a survey of theoretical work on L2 phonology with a focus on the scope and predictive adequacy of individual frameworks. A set of 20 contributions is evaluated in terms of their domain of application and the specificity of their predictions. The second aim is to make empirical contributions to the study of phonological variation in German Learner English by exploring theoretically motivated constraints across a diverse range of phonological structures and proficiency levels. Theory-derived hypotheses are confronted with data from a cross-sectional study on various segmental features in the pronunciation of 62 German learners of English (including 27 native speakers as a baseline of comparison). The study relies on acoustic and auditory analyses to shed light on several notorious structures, including final obstruent (de)voicing, dental fricatives, the labiodental fricative /v/, the labio-velar glide /w/, English /r/, ‘clear’ and ‘dark’ laterals, and the TRAP-DRESS contrast.

Cohesion in Italian adult learners’ and native speakers’ compositions

1994 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 22-50
Author(s):  
Nicoletta Zanardi
Keyword(s):  
Adult Learners ◽  
Native Speakers ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
The Other ◽  
Sectional Study ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Lexical Cohesion ◽  
Developmental Sequences ◽  
Tentative Interpretation

Abstract This paper presents data from a cross-sectional study of the use of cohesion in Italian texts written by L2 adult learners and by native speakers. Twenty-six free compositions were analysed for cohesion: eighteen by anglophone learners of Italian attending first, second, third and fourth year of Italian at Sydney University, and eight by native speakers of Italian divided in two groups: one of students, who have either done their schooling in Italy or recently arrived in Australia, the other of Italian professionals living in Sydney. More specifically, cohesion was analysed for the three categories of reference, conjunction and lexical cohesion. The objective of the study is twofold: a) to compare learners and native speakers in their use of cohesion, and b) to observe the developmental sequences in the use of cohesion in the six different groups. Examples from the texts are given and a tentative interpretation of the data is presented.

Does a Graduate Course in Fluency Disorders Make a Difference?

2010 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evelyn R. Klein ◽  
Barbara J. Amster
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Graduate Programs ◽  
The United States ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Sectional Study ◽  
Graduate Course ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Fluency Disorders ◽  
Introductory Course ◽  
Communicative Disorders

Abstract A study by Yaruss and Quesal (2002), based on responses from 134 of 239 ASHA accredited graduate programs, indicated that approximately 25% of graduate programs in the United States allow students to earn their degree without having coursework in fluency disorders and 66% of programs allow students to graduate without clinical experience treating people who stutter (PWS). It is not surprising that many clinicians report discomfort in treating PWS. This cross-sectional study compares differences in beliefs about the cause of stuttering between freshman undergraduate students enrolled in an introductory course in communicative disorders and graduate students enrolled and in the final weeks of a graduate course in fluency disorders.

Confidence toward vaccination as reported by parents of children admitted to a tertiary care hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: A cross sectional study

Vacunas ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 95-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y.M. AlGoraini ◽  
N.N. AlDujayn ◽  
M.A. AlRasheed ◽  
Y.E. Bashawri ◽  
S.S. Alsubaie ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Saudi Arabia ◽  
Tertiary Care Hospital ◽  
Tertiary Care ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Care Hospital ◽  
Sectional Study ◽  
Cross Sectional
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